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Western SMT

Scottish bus operator

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ7988261
Source-derived summary

Western Scottish Motor Traction Co. Limited was a bus operator in south-west Scotland from 1929 to 1985.

The company was formed in 1929 by the renaming of Scottish General Transport Co. Ltd, after the British Electric Traction subsidiary formed in 1913 was acquired by the Scottish Motor Traction group. The SMT group was nationalised in 1949, and Western SMT became part of the Scottish Bus Group. In preparation for privatisation, the company was split into Clydeside Scottish and Western Scottish in 1985.

In 1984 the company operated buses from depots in the following locations:

Ayr, with sub-depot at Girvan

Cumnock

Dumfries, with sub-depots at Annan, Kirkcudbright and Lockerbie

Carlisle

Greenock

Inchinnan

Johnstone, with sub-depot at Largs

Kilmarnock

Thornliebank, with sub-depot at Ardrishaig

Paisley

Port Ellen on Islay

Rothesay

Stranraer, with sub-depot at Wigtown

Sources

Wilson, David G., ed. (April 1980). Fleetbook 13: Buses of Western Scotland (2nd ed.). Manchester: A.M. Witton.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Western SMT” is scottish bus operator. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Western, Scottish and operator, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 1985, 1913, 1949—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Western, Scottish and operator is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “scottish bus operator” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7988261. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1929, 1985, 1913 and 1949.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Western SMT”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Western SMT primary sources, Western SMT archive and Western research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Western SMT”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Western SMT” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.